


Tickle War

by writeash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Frottage, Gay Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Mutual Pining, Past Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Pining, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post Season 7, Pre-Relationship, Season 7 Spoilers, Teleporting Space Wolf vs Floating Arm Prosthetic, Tickle Fights, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 15:29:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16098506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writeash/pseuds/writeash
Summary: Honestly, it was getting out of hand. Shiro hadn’t meant to start this. It had been ten days ago, it was an accident, and Keith needed to let it go!Shiro didn’t know if this situation could qualify living in terror, but it felt damn close to it.It wasn’t his fault; he was just trying to offer Keith a hand with his recovery!And, no, Shiro did not mean that pun.





	Tickle War

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a request on my tumblr that I sorta ran with. Enjoy!

Despite Keith having been cleared to leave bed just recently, having woken up last and having taken a good force of the blast, the Black Paladin was still grounded from his Lion due to fear for furthering his injuries. 

Shiro had seen the twitching in Keith’s eyebrows and quickly stepped in, saying that he would be more than happy to look after Keith as well as Keith could help him with function checks and systematic updates for the Atlas. While he knew Pidge or Hunk or Sam (or one of the MANY Olkari that had shown up since Keith had been asleep) would have been a better consultant, it got Keith something to do and an excuse to be up and about and still feel productive. 

It had been awkward at first. Ever since Shiro had returned in the depths of space, they hadn’t had much time to themselves to just talk. To go over what was unspoken between them. Shiro especially wanted answers after seeing Keith leap from the Black Lion, as if he were a righteous angel come to cut down his demons. He didn’t want to read into this wrong.

But, the universe apparently just loved to make Shiro’s blood pressure rise because if he thought being stuck with Keith in cramped quarters with Krolia for a week would make Shiro’s skin crawl with ants, then being put with Keith with him and the only barrier between them being the mountainous work between them…

Let’s just say, Keith wasn’t the only one with a twitching eyebrow. 

It had been a few days, both of them hunched over tablets, walking through the Atlas and pointing out errors or concerns, and eventually it grew to be comfortable. Like everything else between them. 

Shiro hadn’t even meant to do it, okay! It’s hard to work an arm without a functioning elbow! But he and Keith had been on a catwalk over the Atlas, looking through the third wave of repairs on their data pads. Nothing unusual. The Atlas didn’t have an indoor hangar at the moment, so they were outside and it was rather bright and Keith had shifted positions without Shiro really taking note. 

He reached over with his metal hand to touch where Keith’s tablet should have been, adjust a few of his numbers. Where it should have been. If Keith was standing upright. Not where it was with Keith hunched over onto the railing to be more comfortable. 

(It wasn’t his fault!)

His metal fingers brushed along Keith’s sensitive side. There was a yelp that made Shiro pause and blink, turning to look. 

And suddenly Shiro was tumbling back there steps to avoid a flailing, blushing Keith. A Keith who had just let out an adorable yelp and who was now staring at Shiro with wide eyes as if personally offended by his very existence. 

Shirt’s blood ran cold, he knew that vengeful look. “Keith, I swear, it was an accident-”

Keith was flushed bright red, his scar vanishing into the pink on his cheeks. “Shiro, I swear to God-”

“I said it was an accident!” Shiro begged, holding his hands up. “Keith, I know how you are, you know I wouldn’t do that to you in public unless it was an accident!”

Shiro could feel perspiration on the back of his neck just by being under Keith’s volcanic glare, but he relaxed somewhat when Keith turned away, the Black Paladin still blushing deeply as he absently covered his side. Shiro felt some of the tension bleed from his shoulders. 

Still eyeing Keith, Shiro managed to recollect his data pad and begin to peruse through the information they had gone through before. Soon enough as the sun set and the pair left the catwalk, chatting about engine modification ideas they could bounce off of the engineers. 

Shiro had all but forgotten it. 

–

He had forgotten that Keith would never forget. Shiro had been so naive, so foolish to think that Keith would just let him off with a warning. How foolish, how childish he had been. 

It hadn’t happened right away, so Shiro did have to credit that Keith obviously took time and pondered his move. 

Soon enough, Keith was clear to fly the Black Lion and help with the other Paladins in the rebuilding process. Keith and Hunk were usually the heftier lifters, or the ones that held a main structure stable, or the ones that carried the most supplies from the Garrison and to where it was needed. 

Shiro was still busy with the Atlas, but also because of his speech at the memorial service for the Garrison, he had been asked to begin to represent the Garrison in specific ways. Public announcements, recruiting new cadets and officials, going through the medical bays to bring hope to the wounded and recovered. 

Not that he was complaining; if Shiro was the face of the Garrison, the Paladins were the face of the planet. 

They had to meet with the other rulers and dignitaries from across the universe who sought refuge or to make an alliance on Earth. They were the ones capable at the moment of carrying the most peoples in the Lions so they often were a part of rescue missions. They had to make speeches (Shiro had to excuse himself as he laughed from the confusion he saw on Earthlings’ faces when Allura tried to explain the mechanics of the five robots that turned into one). 

But nevertheless, none of them were able to relax like they had silently dreamed on their journey home. 

He was exhausted. 

He wasn’t able to be as observant as before. 

It happened one evening when he was walking through the dimmed hallways of the Garrison. The Earth base had been kind enough to scrounge up some available spaces for the Paladins and him to live in their own separate quarters so that they could be taken care of. This was temporary until the Atlas was ready once more. 

Shiro had his nose buried in a datapad, looking at his agenda for the next day. He was tired. He had just got out of an exhausting meeting with Garrison officials - and Veronica had invited Slav to help be the coordinator for the planned drop and retrieval zones they were looking into on another continent. 

Shiro… let’s just say he was really glad that he had left his arm in his quarters to recharge. 

But as he walked down the hallways now, eyes stinging from exhaustion, he didn’t suspect anything. He expected to be able to just go back to his quarters and sleep. 

But no. 

Nope. 

A flash of blue light, and a weight slamming into him with a playful grunt that he knew well and Shiro was suddenly pressed against a wall, his eyes widening as he stared at a familiar set of steel blue ones. 

Keith slammed his hands on either side of Shiro’s shoulders, grinning devilishly. 

Shiro felt heat creep up his face. W-What-

And suddenly it was there. That ticklish sensation in his sides as Keith kept him against the wall. Keith was grinning as Shiro instantly melted into a puddle, the older man hunched over and laughing and squirming, trying to push off Keith with just one arm as Keith ambushed him. 

“K- ha - Keith!” Shiro laughed, squirming as he tried to get away. He only felt Keith’s triumphant chuckle as he tightened his grip around Shiro’s waist suddenly, his hands moving to Shiro’s stomach as he tickled. 

Shiro’s laughter redoubled and he felt moisture prick at the edges of his eyes as he struggled to get away. “Keith - I-I-” he broke off the sentence with more laughter. 

Keith’s breath was suddenly warm against his ear, his tickling subsiding for a moment. “You started this, Shiro.” 

Suddenly Shiro was freed and stumbling away as Keith released him. There was another flash of light and Keith vanished (presumably with Kosmo, who had no doubt brought him here) and Shiro was left a chuckling mess, recovering as he stared at the spot Keith had been, his cheeks flushed. 

“Oh it is so on, you little punk.”

-

That was how it all started. Now, it was just getting out of hand, plain old out of hand. That’s it. 

Shiro didn’t want to have to start and get defensive every time he saw a flash of light. He was the Captain of the Atlas. Atlas was under a lot of repairs. There was a lot of flashes of light that didn’t bring a raven haired terror and his cosmic teleporting wolf, hell bent on tickling him. 

And, okay, to be fair, Shiro had gotten Keith a few times. But they were mostly warnings, not full on barrages!

Just a playful pinch from twenty feet away while Keith was preoccupied with holding back ravenous Garrison personell who wanted to take apart the lions (yeah, Allura, Coran, and the Paladins had pretty much the same reaction to that, it was frightening), or a brush of fingers up a sensitive side as they passed in the hallways. 

The smaller things, that was Shiro’s style. 

Not Keith. 

Keith would attack when Shiro was alone. 

Heading to the gym for his morning run – nope. He was suddenly tackled and tickled mercilessly and just as he got his bearings back, a smirking Keith would dive off of him and disappear the way he came. 

Heading back to his quarters – forget that. Keith would appear, latching onto Keith like a koala bear and tickling him until Shiro was inhaling desperately and then Keith would mercifully teleport away with Kosmo the same way he came. 

So, while Shiro would attack when Keith couldn’t fight back, Keith attacked when Shiro was alone. 

Shiro lived in fear. But compared to the terrors he had lived with in the time since the Galra, this was a fear he was willing to live with. 

-

That isn’t to say that Shiro wasn’t trying to figure out the pattern Keith attacked him with. Some days, he really hoped he could make it back to his quarters without a few extra wrinkles he would need to mind when he got the uniform pressed again. Some days, he hoped Keith would pounce on him because he was ready, he was going to retaliate. 

So, his theory left him with, of course, the fact that Keith attacked when he felt like it. That was the only explanation that Shiro could think of when it came to Keith’s randomized ambushes. 

Rubbing the back of his neck with a sigh, Shiro emerged from the Atlas hangar later than he normally did. Something about Matt, Dr. Holt, and Ryner all wanting to see how exactly he could connect with the Atlas in that one in a million moment when he had taken the simple Earth-made ship and turned it into something beyond scientific imagining - he didn’t know, he didn’t keep up with it entirely. 

Shiro was tired. 

And in hindsight, he should have seen it coming. 

But Shiro was tired, it was late, and the stumped scientists had stubbornly stayed, stupefied by some… okay he was running out of alliteration. The point is, he should have known better.

Halfway between the hangars and his quarters, it happened. 

A flash, the sharp scent of ozone and strong hands that he knew well slammed into him and he was pushed into the wall with a cry that morphed almost instantly into a laugh. 

Strong, slim fingers danced across his sides, pulling the innermost childish laughs from him, even as he struggled to stifle them. 

His new hand instantly braced across a strong chest to try and push Keith off, but the Black Paladin grinned, grabbing the arm and slamming it to the wall by its forearm and Shiro laughed harder, barely keeping Keith at arm’s length with his flesh hand, trying to squirm away. 

“Keith, -haha!” Shiro ducked, trying to pull away. He tried to just go to the right, but his human arm slipped and Keith was still pressed against him and-

Shiro could not have prepared for this. 

Keith’s leg suddenly slipped in between Shiro’s his thighs, providing Shiro with a new friction that had him gasping for a very different reason. A strangled new sound clawed its way out of his throat and made Keith freeze against Shiro, one hand still pinning his metal arm to the wall, the other’s fingers coming to a total halt on the lower part of Shiro’s stomach. 

Shiro was frozen as well, his cheeks heated as he slowly turned his head to glance at the man who had made him gasp like a horny teenager. 

What he was not prepared to see was wide indigo eyes, an innocent parting of his lips, and a faint pink dusting the top of his cheeks as well. 

They stayed that way for a moment and Shiro could feel himself becoming more embarrassing down below. 

Shiro swallowed thickly, his lips flattening for a moment and he shifted, only to have Keith tense ever further and barely catch himself before he all but collapsed on Shiro against the wall - but it did the trick. His leg pressed against Shiro more, and another gasp of pure need was pulled from him. 

Keith could feel him against his leg for sure, but Keith didn’t move. Shiro didn’t want to turn his head to see his expression, even as he hovered over his shoulder. His neck. 

His breath was warm… on his neck. 

Faintly, Shiro heard Keith swallow thickly and that was when he noticed it. 

Against his hip.

He shifted and he then heard Keith inhale sharply through his teeth before the younger man was pulling back and quickly grabbing onto Kosmo’s silvery mane. 

-

Despite the bounds of this new little game Shiro and Keith had created, there were two spaces that held an unspoken agreement for no tickle-wars. 

The first was the training room. Too many people to scrutinize them (and they got enough of that from people who watched them fight in general) as well as the need to take things seriously because training can easily turn deadly when not focused. 

The second was the memorial wall. 

Shiro didn’t know if Keith knew where he vanished to sometimes, but whenever Shiro needed to visit the wall, he was never interrupted, even if it was the early hours of the morning or late at night when Shiro needed a moment to reflect.  

He was there now, after a particularly hard day, staring at one name on the wall. Whenever he came here, Shiro usually saw new bouquets of flowers at the foot of the memorial, honoring the fallen. He hadn’t yet brought flowers; he wanted to respect them but there was a tiny, stupid thing that prevented him from doing it. 

_ Adam laughed, his voice easy and sweet as he covered his nose.  _

_ Shiro had never felt more moritifed than he had in that moment, taking the roses and unceremoniously shoving them into the trash can, slamming the lid down like it had personally offended him. He stared at Adam, sure that the blush on his face was creeping to his ears and down his neck.  _

_ “Adam, I-I am so sorry! I just – you never mentioned – oh my god, is this why you never brought flowers on our dates?” _

_ Adam smiled, and even sniffling and his cheeks flushed with allergies, he nodded. “I didn’t want to tell you because, well… c’mon.” The unspoken acknowledgement of Shiro’s disease hung in the air. Adam shattered it however, saying “I thought about maybe saying something poetic, like, they die soon and our love is eternal, but I thought that was cheesy as hell!” _

_ Shiro tenses and looks away quickly so Adam cannot see how that affected him.  _

_ Adam peered at him nonetheless and slowly grinned. “Wait, seriously? You like those sorts of things?” _

_ Shiro buried his face into his hands, his blush somehow getting hotter as Adam laughed.  _

_ “Aw, babe, if I had known that cheesy lines like that were the way to your heart, I would have done that the moment we met.” _

_ “Oh hush!” _

_ Adam smiled and came to Shiro, hugging him from behind. “Oh don’t be like that…” _

_ Shiro sighed but smiled anyways, glancing to Adam as his hands settled on Adam’s around his waist.  _

_ Adam looked at him with such softness in his eyes. “I appreciate the gesture, Takashi. But trust me, I don’t need flowers to know that you care. Just be there for me, okay?” _

_ Shiro’s smile impossibly softened, an affection in his eyes. “Of course… just like you are for me.” _

Shiro stared at the name now, doing exactly as he had promised. He took a deep breath, scrubbing at his face with his flesh hand. “I know I’ve said this before, but… I am so sorry, Adam.” 

The plaque didn’t reply to him, it never did. But he still felt like Adam was listening. Adam always did listen, even if he didn’t agree. 

Shiro smiled weakly. “It’s sad to keep offering you that apology when it’s so long overdue. I know you might think that I should regret going but…” he glances down to his new arm, rolling his wrist and then clenching his fingers. He sighs, shaking his head. “I don’t regret a thing.”

He swallows thickly and looks back to Adam’s spot on the wall. “I… I wanted to talk about something new today. Something you may have known… you always knew me better than I gave you credit for.” 

Shiro can almost imagine Adam saying it with him, mirth in his voice. 

“You probably saw it back then, even before I knew what it was.” Shiro gave a rueful smile. “But… even now… if you were here… I think we both know how we would be.” 

Shiro had thought about it so many times. He had tried to imagine being with Adam again, with Adam looking at this new body with new scars and new baggage. 

He tried to imagine looking at Adam with new eyes, but even thinking of Adam, every memory led to one sentence. 

_ If you decide to go, don’t expect me to be here when you get back _ . 

It wasn’t Adam’s fault. It was both of them. Adam wanted to spend the last few years of Shiro’s best life with him before things began to fall apart. Shiro wanted to take one last chance to go into the stars. They had worked together so well, they had been together so long. 

But in the end, they had simply grown apart. They had simply wanted different things. 

Shiro smiles and looks to Adam. “It’s funny. I don’t blame you. I don’t hate you. I just wish I could have been here sooner so you could see what Earth is becoming. So that you could live. But at the same time, we both know we wouldn’t have lived side by side.”

Shiro had needed his time in space. He needed the experience with the Galra, believe it or not. He needed that so that he could become the Black Paladin, so that he could clear the way for the next step in freeing the universe. 

He needed to see if he could have been who he was even at the edges of the universe.

He needed to be Shiro alone. 

_ As many times as it takes _ . 

“I needed to find him, even if he was right there.”

He takes in a shaky breath. He smiles. 

“I’m falling in love with Keith.” The admission sounds so loud in the empty space, no matter how softly he had uttered it. 

“I think I have been for a while… he’s not that scrappy kid anymore, and he’s not that fighter pilot I mentored. He’s…. He’s…” he takes another shaky breath, his fingers brushing back and gripping his silver bangs. 

“He’s Keith.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! Thanks so much for reading! For sneak peeks to upcoming chapters, head to my twitter [@writeash1519](https://twitter.com/writeash1519) to see previews, announcements, and more!
> 
> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
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